


Level 18

by mddnapstablook



Category: Fallout 3
Genre: F/F, and references to the Anchorage dlc, basically this is just me wanting an excuse to write my science wife and my lw, spoilers for the end of the Pitt dlc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 13:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17767553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mddnapstablook/pseuds/mddnapstablook
Summary: After dealing with the slaves and slavers from the Pitt, Tabitha needs a moment to reassess the actions she's made up to this point in her life. Moira helps her deal with it all.





	Level 18

When Tabitha steps down from the cart, her Pip-Boy immediately picks back up on the Galaxy News Radio signal that had gone out on her trip to the Pitt. She catches the tail end of ‘Butcher Pete’, and then Three-Dog launches into a story. “Hey, out on that ridge! It’s Buddha! It’s Jesus! No, it’s the… Wasteland Savior! Here’s an update on Vault 101’s homegrown messiah.”

She changes the station before she can hear the story; she already knows what happened, though she doesn’t know just which of her expeditions he’s going to retell this time. She can’t bear to hear it though, and the sound of Agatha’s pre-recorded violin is enough to soothe her nerves. She checks her location and mentally calculates how long it will take her to reach Megaton again. She wants nothing more than to go home and crack open an Ice Cold Nuka Cola, courtesy of Wadsworth, but it’ll be at least a few days before that’s a reality. 

Will news of what she’s done reach town before she does? Her stomach turns at the thought. Three-Dog always seems to find out exactly what she’s done, even if she manages to kill all witnesses, or does something that she doesn’t even think is worth notice. Maybe he has spies all around the Capital Wasteland, like the Enclave with their little bots. It would make more sense than him just receiving everything word-of-mouth and taking it at face value. 

The trek home is long and uncomfortable, and Tabitha has a painful run-in with a Yao Guai on the way. She hisses through clenched teeth as she douses the wound on her side with purified water and sticks it with a stimpack, watching as the skin restitches itself. Her eyes hesitate on the smiley-face scar next to the injection site and her heart pangs. 

Moira was going to ask questions when Tabitha got home. She’d want to know where she’s been and what she’s done. How could Tabitha tell her? How could she tell anyone that she’s kidnapped a baby? She was the fuckin’ tenacious teen savior from Vault 101. She’s one of the good guys. And she literally kidnapped a child and handed it over to some creep who doesn’t even understand why a kid would like some stuffed animals. 

Tabitha’s stomach rolls, and she just manages not to throw up. Checking her map, she has less than a half a day left to walk before she makes it back to Megaton. It would take three or four days if she turns around and heads for Rivet City instead. She contemplates her decision for a second longer as Agatha continues playing on the radio, on the stupid violin that Tabitha had retrieved for her just because she could, just because she wanted to make an old lady’s day. 

-

“Hey!” Moira exclaims when Tabitha walks through the door of Craterside Supply. “Simms said you got back late last night! I’ve missed you,” she says, coming around the counter to hug her. Tabitha lets her bag drop and returns the hug, breathing in the scent of Moira’s weird soap. 

“I missed you, too. Thought about you every day.” 

“Flatterer,” Moira says as she pulls back and returns to the business side of her counter. She clears her throat. “So, what can I do for you today?”

Tabitha shakes her head as she picks her bag back up off the ground. “You can fix my stuff up later, I just wanted to see you before I head out again.” 

“Again? What?” Moira giggles, and the sound makes Tabitha’s breath catch. “You just got here, silly. Stay awhile! You don’t always have to be on the go, you know?” 

“Moira, I still have a lot I need to do. I need to get back to Project Purity, and there’s still that Riverboat I wanted to look into…” Tabitha trails off, frowning. Going to the Pitt wasn’t supposed to take as long as it did, and she’d only just found her dad. And here she was, wasting time talking to a pretty girl when she needed to leave, to go and find the final piece to get clean water for everyone. She needed to help her dad, to finish her mom’s greatest dream. She needed to make amends for all the death and chaos and terrible things that she’d done. 

Moira doesn’t say anything immediately, and then she pulls out a clipboard from behind her counter and slides it over to Tabitha. “What’s this?” she asks, but Moira just smiles and nods at her, so Tabitha picks it up and looks over what’s written, a list of names and numbers. “This is…”

“They’re Wasteland Survival Guide orders! Three-Dog put the word out about it and now everyone wants a copy. Isn’t that great? Tabby, we’re going to save a lot of people. Every time the caravans come around, I send out a couple more copies. It’s because of you that this book even got finished! If you hadn’t come around when you did and offered to help me, who knows what I might have done?” Moira says. 

Tabitha shakes her head and sets down the clipboard. “Probably would have gotten yourself killed one way or another.”

Moira laughs, like the idea of her death isn’t Tabitha’s worst nightmare. “Exactly! But it’s because you’re just reckless enough to be a hero and help me write this thing that I’m alive, and now, a lot of other people are going to survive when they might not have before.” Moira reaches across the counter and takes one of Tabitha’s gloved hands. “So can’t you just take a little break? Spend the day with me? Then I promise I’ll let you get back to saving the wasteland, alright?” 

As if Tabitha has ever been able to say no to her, even when her own life would be in question. 

-

The day passes with little event, though Moira raises a brow when Tabitha declines to change the radio station from Agatha’s violin. “Just in the mood for something different.” she lies, and Moira nods, believing her. 

When Moira closes up shop at 8, she stops at The Brass Lantern to pick up dinner for both of them and meets Tabitha back at her house. Tabitha’s waiting in her living room when Wadsworth lets Moira in, and Dogmeat jumps up from where he’d been resting by her feet to paw at Moira as she shuts the door behind herself. “Down, boy!” she laughs, holding the food just out of reach of the drooling dog. “I’ll let you have the rest _after_ I’ve finished, okay?”

Dogmeat woofs happily and circles back to Tabitha’s feet, huffing and laying down. Moira shakes her head and takes a seat across from them, setting the food on the table. “Do you think he actually understands English?”

“Probably,” Tabitha replies as she takes a drink of her Nuka Cola. “Do you want one?” 

“Nah, I’ll just have water- oh, thank you!” Moira says, taking the drink from Wadsworth. 

“I live to serve!” he says cheerfully as he makes his exit, floating up the stairs to hover around in Tabitha’s room until she goes to bed. Tabitha shakes her head and reaches for her own bowl of noodles while Moira begins tearing into her Brahmin Steak. 

“So, are you ever going to tell me what happened while you were gone? Where did you go!” Moira asks. Tabitha frowns. 

“Why don’t you tell me what I missed in town, first. Is Nathan still crazy?” Tabitha asks, slowly wrapping a long strand of noodle around her fork. Across from her, Moira snorts. 

“‘God bless the USA, and nowhere else!’” Moira mimics perfectly, and that succeeds in getting Tabitha to laugh. “That was you the whole time you did that weird VR thing, right?”

Tabitha nods. “Yeah, kind of. But the Chinese make some awesome weapons and armor. I can sneak right past a deathclaw and they never even know it with this suit.” she says, gesturing to what she’s wearing. 

“Jeez, you’ve seen a deathclaw up close? That’s so cool!” Moira says, stars in her eyes. “What’s it like?”

“Terrifying.” 

Moira scoffs. “I’m surprised anything _can_ scare you. You’re like… untouchable.”

“Hardly,” Tabitha argues as she finishes her noodles. “I think you’re putting me on a bit of a pedestal.”

“Ugh, you’re right, I’m sorry. I know you hate that.” Moira apologizes, shaking her head as she sets down her bare plate. Dogmeat immediately jumps up to lick at the plate, and Moira chuckles and scratches between his ears as she rustles around in the bag she’d carried the food in for a lizard kabob. She carefully pulls the meat from the stick and drops it onto the plate for Dogmeat, who wolfs it all down in seconds. “But how can I not?” Moira continues. “I mean, God, Tabby. From the day I first met you, you walked into town and disarmed the bomb like it was _nothing_. And sure, the children of Atom weren’t happy about it, but that’s like, ten people compared to the entire rest of the town you saved. You save people all the time, and barely break a sweat.” 

Tabitha frowns and looks away. How can Moira just say that? Just say those things like it’s already decided, a fact of life that Tabitha is a good person. It makes her heart hurt in a way that’s different from the pleasant tug of pain she gets when Moira smiles at her. She doesn’t like it. 

“I haven’t told you what I did while I was gone,” Tabitha says softly, nearly a whisper. 

“I know. I’m listening, though! Whenever you’re ready.” Moira replies as if it’s that easy. 

“Okay.” Tabitha begins, and she takes a breath and closes her eyes. “I kidnapped a baby.” 

Moira doesn’t say anything, and Tabitha cracks open an eye to read her expression. It’s uncomfortably blank, like a mockery of Moira’s usual beautiful face. “What?” she asks. 

Tabitha chokes on the next word, stops to take a shaky sip of her flat soda. “I… I heard the radio message. There’s this place… it’s called the Pitt. It’s, it’s basically these brotherhood of steel guys who gave up on the cause and enslaved a bunch of people to rebuild this city because there’s this working steel mill. But the entire area is contaminated by this disease, it turns people after a few years.”

“Turns them into what? Ghouls? Supermutants?” 

Tabitha shakes her head. “Worse, different, I don’t know. They turn… white, and the locals call them Trogs. They walk around on all fours, and God, I don’t know… there’s no cure, once they’ve turned. And everyone turns eventually, from exposure. But… the slavers were working on a cure. For themselves, of course.”

“Oh my God.” Moira covers her mouth with a hand. “What-”

“The cure, the key to the cure was a baby. The leader, the guy in charge of everything, he has a daughter. Had. I killed him, of course. I killed all of the slavers because I had to. They enslaved people! They-, they made them fight to the death in this arena just for the chance to become a slaver, themselves. It was awful, it…” Tabitha trails off, burying her face in her hands with a shudder. “I took the baby, and I gave it to Wernher. He’s going to work with the other slaves to figure out the cure from her, and then they can save everyone. I’ve basically handed her over to be a living test subject for who only knows how long.” 

“Jesus,” Moira says finally. “Are you okay?”

Tabitha lifts her head from her hands, and her jaw drops. “Am _I_ okay? I just finished telling you how I killed a goddamn baby’s father and then handed her over to- to be poked and prodded for a potential of years! I’m a monster!”

“No!” Moira shouts, standing abruptly. “No, you saved people!”

Tabitha stands, too, tears blurring her eyesight. “I killed people, Moira! That baby is going to be tortured, she’s never going to know her parents, and who knows what they’ll do with her after she’s provided the cure for them.” 

“She’s a _baby_ , Tabby. They’re not going to kick her to the curb because they’ve figured out the cure. She’ll be a hero, just like you are. You did nothing wrong.” Moira says, and she envelops Tabitha in a tight hug. “You did everything right. You saved everyone. You made a ridiculously hard decision that no one else could have, and you managed to make the right one. Because you’re brilliant and kind, and you always do the right thing.” 

The tears spill over, and Tabitha sobs as she clings to the fabric of Moira’s shirt. At her feet, Dogmeat whines and paws at her. When Moira pulls away, it’s with a smile as she wipes away Tabitha’s tears. “You’re okay. You made it through. I love you.” 

“I love you, too. More than anything.” Tabitha breathes out, still holding tight around Moira’s waist. Dogmeat whines from the floor. With a watery laugh, Tabitha lets go and leans down to pet him. “And I love you, too, you needy little puppy.” 

“Tabby, that is not a puppy anymore.”

With a playful glare, Tabitha pouts and snuggles into Dogmeat’s neck. “ _All_ dogs are puppies, Moira.” 

“Well, excuse me.” Moira giggles. “Let’s leave the ‘puppy’ to his own devices and get to bed, huh? I still need to repair your stuff before you head out tomorrow, and it’s not getting done before I open up shop unless we get to sleep soon.” 

With a sigh, Tabitha relents and rises, taking Moira’s hand to lead her up the stairs. “If you insist.”

“I do.”

-

When Tabitha wakes up, she’s alone in bed. She rubs her eyes and stretches and starts the slow process of putting her Pip-Boy back on, tugging on her stealth suit, and slipping on her creepy hockey mask. When she goes to grab her pack, it’s not in the locker beside the front door where she normally places it. 

“Oh, Good morning, Madame! Miss Moira has already left for the day, and she’s asked me to tell you to stop by and grab your belongings before you head out on your next mission!” Wadsworth tells her helpfully when she closes the locker door. 

“Thank you, Wadsworth,” she says, as she steps out into the bright sunlight of another day. A Megaton resident she’s seen around before stops her and gives her a handful of caps, for ‘all the good you’ve done.’ She accepts it shyly, tucking it into her pocket. 

When she’s retrieved her things from Moira and pulled away from a third goodbye kiss, she smiles and salutes her as she exits the store and sets the coordinates for her next stop- the Jefferson Memorial. Agatha plays beautifully on the radio, and Tabitha smiles before changing the station back to Galaxy News Radio, right as ‘Happy Times’ fades into ‘Easy Living’. 

It’s her favorite song.

**Author's Note:**

> the title is a reference to the fact that your character is called the wasteland savior when you hit level 18 with good karma. can u tell im bad at naming stories? anyway i was basically just in a whole state of 'godDAMN' during my most recent playthrough of fo3 when i really sat back and thought about the fact that you play as a 19 year old who barely knows anything about anything and suddenly has to save everybody from everything. the lone wanderer could really use a friend once in a while to help them not lose it, you know? and who better than everyone's favorite author, the funny and adorable (and should have been romanceable) Moira Brown? anyway, i hope you liked this fic, if you've made it this far! and thank u for reading.


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